A Creationist Review and Preliminary Analysis of the History, Geology, Climate, and Biology of the Galã

Scholars Crossing Faculty Publications and Presentations Department of Biology and Chemistry 2-2007 Review: A Creationist Review and Preliminary Analysis of the History, Geology, Climate, and Biology of the Galápagos Islands Timothy R. Brophy Liberty University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/bio_chem_fac_pubs Part of the Biology Commons, and the Chemistry Commons Recommended Citation Brophy, Timothy R., "Review: A Creationist Review and Preliminary Analysis of the History, Geology, Climate, and Biology of the Galápagos Islands" (2007). Faculty Publications and Presentations. 110. https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/bio_chem_fac_pubs/110 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Biology and Chemistry at Scholars Crossing. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications and Presentations by an authorized administrator of Scholars Crossing. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 22 Origins 45 Book reviews thorough review of Darwin’s own writings on the A Creationist Review and Preliminary subject, Dr Wood makes a convincing argument that Analysis of the History, Geology, Climate, Darwin’s visit to the Galápagos contributed to his and Biology of the Galápagos Islands acceptance of transmutation but not his ideas on by Todd Charles Wood natural selection. This is a striking claim because of Center for Origins Research (CORE) persistent myths to the contrary. Issues in Creation Number 1. Wipf and Stock Publishers, Eugene, OR. 2005 Chapter three gives a thorough, yet at times technical, review of the geology and climate of the Pages 241pp $36.00 (US). Galápagos Islands. Dr Wood brilliantly applies the ISBN 1-59752-180-9 Catastrophic Plate Tectonics model of Austin et al (1994) to the specifi c geology of the Galápagos and concludes that the islands are entirely post-Flood in origin. The climate section of this chapter focuses Reviewed by Timothy R. Brophy on the extreme climate variations of the modern islands produced by the El Niño Southern Oscillation. Most interesting, however, is Dr Wood’s discussion This book is the fi rst of what sets out to be of the post-Flood climate of the Galápagos and a long series of monograph-length works his provisional acceptance published by the Center for Origins Research of the occurrence of extreme at Bryan College in Dayton, Tennessee, precipitation immediately USA. According to Dr Kurt Wise, editor of following the Flood. Chapters CORE Issues in Creation, the series “has one to three of this book are truly been created to publish any monograph impressive, but Dr Wood’s in any discipline … which substantially major contribution comes in contributes to the systematic development chapter four. of a positive, young-age creation model” (Series Introduction). In chapter four, Dr Wood “substantially advances the entire Dr Wood’s book offers a preliminary discipline of creation biology with creationist interpretation of the his application of baraminological Galápagos Islands, which “have techniques to the Islands’ fl ora and long served as an example of, and fauna” (Wise, Series Introduction). apologetic for, evolution”. This soft Baraminology is the study of God’s cover book is divided into fi ve chapters created kinds or baramins. The with 241 pages, 45 fi gures, six tables, goal of baraminology is to identify one appendix, and eight colour holobaramins (groups of known plates. Chapter one gives a general organisms that share continuity and introduction to the geographical and are bounded by discontinuity) by historical setting of the Galápagos building up monobaramins (groups of Islands, reviews the history of known organisms that share continuity, creationist comments on the islands, and lays out a plan of attack without regard to discontinuity with other for the rest of the book. Most striking, however, are Dr Wood’s introductory organisms) and breaking up apobaramins (groups comments regarding the “modern myth of the Galápagos as a catalyst to the of known organisms bounded by discontinuity, discovery of evolution”. without regard to internal continuity of its members). Dr Wood far surpasses this goal by presenting In chapter two, Dr Wood continues his discussion of this myth and concludes several new baraminological analyses that include that “the relationship of Darwin’s intellectual development to the islands has the discovery of seven new holobaramins and ten been overstated”. According to Dr Wood, Darwin’s development of evolutionary new monobaramins. This chapter also presents theory came in two stages: 1) transmutation (i.e. species are not fi xed entities intriguing creationist interpretations of mediated but have the capability to change from one species to another); and 2) design versus degeneration, biological imperfection, natural selection as the primary mechanism to explain transmutation. After a and Galápagos biogeography. 23 Origins 45 References Austin, S.A., Baumgardner, J.R., Humphreys, D.R., Snelling, A.A., Vardiman, L., Wise, K.P. (1994). Catastrophic plate tectonics: a global flood model of earth history, pp.609-621 in: Walsh, R.E. (editor), Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Creationism. Creation Science Fellowship, Pittsburgh, PA. Brand, L.R. (1997). Faith, Reason, and Earth History: A Paradigm of Earth and Biological Origins by Intelligent Design. Andrews University Press, Berrien Springs, MI. Timothy R. Brophy is Associate Professor of Biology at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, USA. His dissertation research focused on variation and systematics in a Southeast Asian turtle genus. Giant Tortoise istockphoto.com © 2007 Rebecca Picard Chapter five outlines the major conclusions reached by the study, including the assertion that “rather than being good examples of evolution, the biology and geology of the islands are consistent with a young-earth creationist model of earth and life history”. Dr Wood also gives many practical suggestions for future creationist research in this and other chapters. Chapter five is more than just a summary, however, because Dr Wood has one more analysis up his sleeve. This final analysis looks for separate evidence of adaptation and radiation in six groups of Galápagos organisms frequently attributed to adaptive radiation. Bluefooted Booby istockphoto.com © 2007 Jose Tejo Dr Wood concludes that only Darwin’s finches show clear evidence of adaptive radiation, whereas several other groups show evidence of radiation but not adaptation. The latter suggests that radiation can occur without environmental adaptation, a finding consistent with the young-earth creation model. The book ends with 32 pages of references and an appendix outlining the use of multidimensional scaling in baraminology. The 520 individual references listed in this book represent an extremely thorough coverage of relevant creationist and non-creationist literature, and should serve as a valuable resource for future researchers. I did, however, discover one minor error in the references section. Leonard Brand’s 1997 book (see References of this review) was cited on page 123 of the monograph but was not listed in the references section. I also found two sentences in the book that were missing a single word. Finally, I find that several of the black and white photographs and colour plates are of a slightly inferior quality. These minor problems, however, in no way detract from the overall quality of the book. This monograph represents a major contribution to creation science and goes a long way in advancing the young-age creation model. Every serious creation scientist must read this book. Because of Dr Wood’s smooth and easy-to-read style, this somewhat technical work can also be read by anyone who has even a casual interest in the young- earth creation model. This book is available for purchase at the CORE Issues website: http://www.bryancore.org/issues/index.html. Iguana istockphoto.com © 2007 Nancy Nehring.

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